Fly Eagles Fly To The State Championship Game
The Smyrna Eagles have made the best of their season thus far including a big playoff win last week over Mount Pleasant and they looked to bring that momentum into Saturday’s game on the road against reigning state champions, the William Penn Colonials.
The Eagles fell behind 13-0 into the second quarter, but with :41 seconds left, the unthinkable happened – starting quarterback, Nolan Henderson was hit late on a play and went down in pain. The junior would eventually be taken off the field on a stretcher leaving the ball in sophomore, Will Knight’s hands to lead the way. Knight was in at quarterback in wildcat offense and he owned the field – carrying the ball on the next three plays. On the third play, Knight brought the Eagles their first touchdown of the game to make it a one touchdown game, 13-6, heading into halftime.
The Colonials might have thought the Eagles missing their starting quarterback was going to be a big problem for Smyrna, however, Henderson’s teammates now had something and someone to win this game for in the grand scheme of things. The first half was just a warm up for the sophomore who took the field with fire in his eyes – scoring three touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters and finished the game with 32 carries for 270 yards. Anyone that knows Knight, knows what was most important to him and that was that his team got the win over Penn to secure their ticket to the state championship game for the first time in school history. This team rallied behind one another on offense, and the defense would not let up in the second half as the Eagles got the win, 30-13.
The Smyrna Eagles continue to prove week in and week out why they deserve the state title and next week should be no different against Salesianum – a rematch of the Eagles’ sole loss of the season. Smyrna knows that one loss this season will not matter if they are the state champions next week – congratulations to the Eagles on a historical season that will continue on against Salesianum at the University of Delaware!
*From the Smyrna Twitter “2 is good to go…” – glad to see Henderson is doing well!
